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Tuesday, October 9, 2012

Stree Shakti: Saving 'Paros' of Mewat

The wrinkles on Fazilaâ€™s face betray her troubled past. She was brought from Assam and sold to a disabled man in Mewat, Haryana, when she was barely 14 years old, the first of her several husbands. â€œHe brought me to Delhi for 1500 rupees and got me married to a handicapped man. I was forced to do manual labour and even subjected to physical violence and torture,â€ Fazila, victim of bride trafficking said.

Women like Fazila were undergoing severe exploitation and abuse as brides before they were rescued by this man Shafiq Khan and his group Empower People. â€œBride trafficking is a form of trafficking where girls are deceived in the name of marriage and sold to other buyers. These girls are then kept by buyers as their sex slaves and exploited as laborers,â€ Shafiq Khan, Founder, Empower People, said.

Used as sex slaves, sold and resold, these hapless victims come from vulnerable socio-economic backgrounds, an easy prey for bride traffickers. â€œIn the pretext of marriage and declining sex ratio the brides are bought as bonded labourers or to put them into sex trade. In some cases they are also used by group of men within the same family,â€ Shafiq Khan said. Shafiq has been creating awareness about these trafficked women for the past six years. Watch his story on Amazing Indians this weekend. Source